with that of Great Britain, provided similar advantages were experienced by British shipping in the ports of such foreign states; and also to impose countervailing duties, in case such were rendered necessary by the conduct of other countries; and an act founded upon these resolutions, -usually called the Reciprocity of Duties Act, -was carried through both Houses.

In the course of this session Mr. Huskisson introduced other measures, connected with the trade and manufactures of the country-the Merchant Vessels Apprenticeship Bill, and that for removing the various vexatious regulations with which the manufacture of Scotch Linen had hitherto been shackled, and its prosperity impeded.

He also brought forward the Registry Bill, which had been prepared in the preceding year, but which he had found still lying at the Board of Trade when he succeeded to that office. This Bill was a consolidation of all the existing laws on the subject, with many improvements, and had been much called for by every one connected with the Shipping Interests of the country. It was a subject very complicated in its details, and difficult to understand; but Mr. Huskisson felt its importance, and lost no time in making himself master of, and bringing it before Parliament; and, after some protracted delays in the House of Lords, which drew from him a firm but temperate remonstrance, these Bills ultimately passed before the close of the session.

It would be tedious, in a narrative like this, to endeavour to follow Mr. Huskisson through all the different measures which he introduced and carried, while he directed the commercial department of the Government, or to discuss the treaties which were, during that time, negotiated with Prussia, Denmark, Sweden, the Hans Towns, several of the new States of America, and finally with France. It has already been stated, that such discussion would not be entered into, nor the demon of controversy evoked by a studied vindication, or eulogium, of the principles of FREE TRADE.* The best history of this brilliant period of his public life,-the best exposition of that system, will be found in those Speeches, with which he introduced, and defended his various measures, and which will be allowed, even by those who differed from him on some points, to comprise a mass of the most profound and valu able information on the subjects to which they refer, and be considered by those who formerly assisted his labours, and now uphold his principles, as forming a Manual for future Ministers, on all questions of commercial and international policy.

In 1824, several further measures of relaxation

Reluctant as we are to engage in a controversy on the merits of Mr. Huskisson's Commercial System, we cannot forbear calling the attention of the advocates for prohibition and protection to an article in the Foreign Quarterly Review of October 1830, and begging them to contrast the effects of the Prohibitive System, as manifested in the present state of the manufacturing interest in France, with the official reports which have been published in Prussia of the results of an opposite policy.

and amelioration were accomplished, and the Silk Bill resumed and carried into operation.

In 1825, another most important undertaking was completed, the general revision of the Revenue Laws. This was a task* of vast magnitude and extraordinary labour, and one which, as Mr. Huskisson frequently declared, could never have been achieved, but for the able assistance and unwearied diligence of Mr. James Deacon Hume, then of the Customs, and now of the Board of Trade, to whom the lasting gratitude of the country is owing, for his persevering exertions, and for the essential benefit which he thus conferred on the Commercial world.

It was on the occasion of the two Speeches on the Colonial and Foreign Commerce of the country, in which this revision was announced, that Mr. Huskisson was gratified with the following high authority, in approbation of the course he was pursuing.

"Dear Sir:

"Charles-street, 27th April, 1825.

“On my return to town yesterday, I found on my table your two printed Speeches, for which I sincerely thank

Some idea may be formed of the laborious nature of this undertaking, when it is stated, that these laws had accumulated, from the reign of Edward I. up to the present time, to the enormous number of fifteen hundred. From the contradictions and confusion attendant on such a chaos of legislation, merchants were perplexed and harassed beyond measure. It was now, under the auspices of the Board of Trade and the Treasury, compressed by Mr. Hume into eleven Acts, in so clear and comprehensive a manner, that the meaning or application of them can no longer be mistaken.

you.

How cordially I concur in all that those measures effect I know I need not tell you; and if they still leave undone much that I confidently believe would be even yet more beneficial than what you now do, I have in the course of a pretty long public life gained experience enough to learn, that even those things which are most clearly and undeniably useful, require to have the way smoothed before them, especially when so many interests are to be conciliated, and so many prejudices to be surmounted. And it is fair to add, that you have already accomplished more in this line, than I had the least expectation that I should live to

see.

"Go on and prosper ! is therefore my earnest exhortation, and ardent wish.

"Believe me ever, &c. &c.

"GRENVILLE."

"I ought not to have omitted, how much I feel gratified by the obliging expressions you have used personally towards myself.

"G."*

Yet, notwithstanding the strong prejudices which were known to be arrayed against them, these and other considerable changes in the Commercial system made their way through both Houses of Legislature in this session, without encountering any alarming resistance, and without calling forth any denunciations of the terrible effects which, in the following year, it was attempted to impute to their operation.

In this year, Mr. Huskisson spoke, for the first time at any length, in favour of the Catholic Relief

The high value which justly attaches to proofs of approbation such as this, will, it is hoped, be accepted as an apology for the use of private correspondence in this, and a few similar instances.

Bill. Could he then have anticipated the fate of that question a few years later, how well and pointedly might he have remarked, as he had done in reference to the Commercial concessions which had been, at different intervals, granted to Ireland, that if Parliament rejected the Bill before them, the time would come when "state necessity, acting under a sense of political danger, must yield, without grace, that which good sense and good feeling had before recommended in vain." It is surely impossible for language to pourtray more faithfully the ultimate settlement of the Catholic question.

It was in June in this year that, on the third reading of the Bill on the Law of Principal and Factor (a measure for defining and amending which had been carried by him through the House of Commons, in the preceding year, but had failed in the Lords) - Mr. Huskisson particularly distinguished himself in a speech, of which, unfortunately, not even an outline exists. The House had been occupied all night with the case of Mr. Kenrick and Canfor the butcher, and the debate on the Law of Merchant and Factor bill did not come on till very late. Mr. Scarlett made a long and learned speech against the measure. His arguments were combated by Mr. Huskisson, who in a speech of an hour and a half gave his entire view of the commercial polity of this country, as the natural depôt of the merchandize passing between the new and the old world, and urged the necessity of affording